One of my annoyances with the Lexar Lightning with PowerToGo was the lack of a free backup utility. With Lexar, it is a $10 USD download.

As a result, I hesitated to make the purchase… and now I’m sorry that I didn’t just consider that cost as part of the cost of the device!

Last week Lexar released an update to the PowerToGo system that enables you to run Windows programs from their Lexar Lightning memory stick. My PowerToGo booted this morning with a request to update the software. Foolishly -and I say ‘foolishly’ because I did not have any backup- I agreed and pressed ‘OK’.

The rest you can guess. The process generates two error messages about the software certificate being different and after installing the Lexar Lightning is effectively dead in the water. Files in My Documents are accessible by those in the secure vault are not and none of the installed apps will run properly.

Lexar Support online chat is unresponsive, no doubt due to the volume of complaints, and you are directed to leave an email.

I’ll let you know what happens when I get a response from Lexar Support.

-The (Foolish) Portable Consultant